Call to question President Zardari over art theft claims

The daughter of an internationally acclaimed artist has accused the president
of Pakistan of helping to steal her mother's paintings and wants the
Metropolitan Police to question him during his visit to Britain.

Laila Shahzada's daughter has accused the president of Pakistan of helping to steal her mother's paintingsPhoto: BARCROFT

Dean Nelson and Gordon Rayner

11:01PM BST 03 Aug 2010

Shaheen Shahzada has lodged court papers in Pakistanclaiming President Asif Ali Zardari colluded with her brother to steal 93 paintings from her flat in Karachi.

The canvases, most of which were shipped to London, were the work of her mother Laila Shahzada, who gained international acclaim before her death in 1994.

Miss Shahzada has already asked Scotland Yard to help recover the paintings, worth up to £300,000 in total, and now hopes officers will contact Mr Zardari after he flew to London for a meeting with David Cameron.

Miss Shahzada's brother, however, has insisted the paintings were left to him in their mother's will, and that they are rightfully his. Mr Zardari denies any wrongdoing.

Miss Shahzada said: "The Metropolitan Police should question Zardari about it while he is in London. My brother took the paintings from the Karachi flat with the help of Zardari in 1994. No one could have touched him at the time because they were in power."

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Mr Zardari has faced repeated allegations of corruption in Pakistan, where he earned the nickname "Mr 10 per cent" following claims that he had amassed a £1.1 billion fortune by taking personal commissions on government contracts.

Before he became president, he was also under investigation in Switzerland, where prosecutors discovered he had £37 million in assets, though investigators have suggested Mr Zardari had up to £740m hidden in Swiss accounts.

The Laila Shahzada paintings went missing in 1994 immediately after the artist died in a gas explosion at her home.

According to a petition lodged by Miss Shahzada at Pakistan's Supreme Court, Mr Zardari and her brother Sohail, a long-standing friend of the president, took the paintings to London and Florida, where the president has a home.

Mr Zardari has claimed in the past that he was simply looking after the paintings for Sohail Shahzada, but Miss Shahzada, 61, is adamant that they should have been shared equally between the artist's three children.

Miss Shahzada claims 53 of the paintings were destined for Rockwood House in Surrey, a £5m mansion owned by Mr Zardari and his late wife Benazir Bhutto which was later sold amid allegations it had been bought with the proceeds of corruption.

In 2005 Miss Shahzada discovered that the paintings were being stored in a warehouse in Golders Green, north London, together with a 1920s Rolls-Royce belonging to the Bhutto family.

She took photographs of the paintings and made a complaint to Scotland Yard, who she says later helped her stop some of the pictures being sold at auction. The current whereabouts of the pictures are unknown.

A spokesman for Mr Zardari said he was not aware of the paintings, while sources close to the Pakistani president have previously dismissed the allegations as "rubbish".

The Met police officer who dealt with the original complaint was unavailable for comment.